


A Boy and His Dog

by Skew



Category: The Pacific - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Community: trope_bingo, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-21
Updated: 2013-02-21
Packaged: 2017-12-03 04:27:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/694117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skew/pseuds/Skew
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Eddie Jones - and his daemon, Loretta - learn that some folks are more suited to warfare than others, that the Japanese move in mysterious ways, and that if they want to survive, they can't just rely on each other. (Or in short, Guadalcanal with daemons in.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Boy and His Dog

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 'daemons AU' square at [](http://trope-bingo.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**trope_bingo**](http://trope-bingo.dreamwidth.org/).

The ship pitched and rolled on the choppy waves, and all Eddie could think was that this was how Noah must have felt, towards the end of his forty days at sea. It was a mercy daemons didn't smell like real animals, because the crowd stunk bad enough as it was, sick and nervous men and beasts packed tight on the deck as they awaited the order to land.

Eddie no longer needed to crane his head over the others to see Guadalcanal looming ahead of them. A pall of smoke hung over it, and he could just about pick out the flicker of distant fires among the trees.

A whistle blew, and the first men began to descend the nets. Eddie squeezed Loretta's paw.

"This is it, ol' girl."

"Not scared, are you?" she said.

"You tell me."

Loretta nudged her nose against his cheek. 

"We'll be fine. As long as we're together."

 

Life had been so much simpler once, when they were just a boy and his dog.

Loretta had settled a few days shy of Eddie's twelfth birthday. He woke one morning with her curled at the foot of his bed as usual, and had washed and dressed and was halfway down the road to school before he noticed.

"Hey, Loretta," he said, glancing down at her as she loped along beside him, "you ain't changed once today."

"Haven't I?" Loretta looked thoughtful. Her brow furrowed and her ears swivelled as she concentrated with all her might, but she remained unchanged. "Well, would you look at that? I'm stuck."

Eddie stopped to appraise her new form. She was a sheepdog of some kind, as far as he could tell - something like a collie, though very long and lean, her short fur sandy brown with patches of white and black. She reminded him of his grandfather's daemon, Gwyneth; Grandpa Jones had died when Eddie was very young, but he could just about remember both man and daemon as soft-spoken and kindly folks, who could sing the old mountain ballads in harmonies that made chills run down his spine. She wasn't exactly eye-catching, but he could've done a lot worse.

"Well, then, if you're gonna be a practical kind of daemon, you can carry my bag," he said, slipping his satchel from his shoulder and fixing it over Loretta's back. She huffed in disapproval.

"And if I'd known you'd use me as a beast of burden, I'd have settled as a canary."

But though Loretta griped for a week or two about no longer being able to fly or to ride on Eddie's shoulder, they were both happy with how she'd turned out. Being the first kid in class to have his daemon settle made everyone jealous - at least until three weeks later, when Emily Pearson's daemon settled as a golden eagle - and what was more, she was useful. The family might not have had any sheep to herd, but she was great at rounding up his little brothers and sisters, and she had a real talent for hunting rabbits. When Eddie left school and joined the Civilian Conservation Corps, he found she could dig holes with her paws faster than he could with a shovel, and when they grew tired of planting trees and signed up for the Marine Corps, the recruiting sergeant smiled as soon as he caught sight of them.

"Son, I can tell just from looking that you'll make a damn fine Marine," he said, and the German Shepherd sat beside him nodded in agreement.

They travelled the world together, training and labouring side by side, until the trouble that had been brewing elsewhere finally boiled over, and they were called upon for war.

"It'll be like old times," Loretta said as they boarded the ship that would take them to Guadalcanal. "Just another camping trip out in the woods." 

Eddie knew as well as she did that that was a lie, but it did make him feel a little better to think of it that way.

 

In the event, the landing was not what anyone had expected. They walked ashore with no difficulty, and moved inland all day without meeting anyone other than fellow Americans. The biggest problem was confusion. Their maps, it turned out, bore only a passing resemblance to the actual geography of the island, and the landmarks their officers kept assuring them were 'just over the next ridge' had a habit of not showing up. It was only by late afternoon that command seemed to have worked out where they were and decided upon a destination, and by that point, it was clear they wouldn't get there before sunset.

They made camp as the light began to fade. Eddie sat on a treestump and unpacked his rations, while Loretta investigated a fallen coconut.

"There's gotta be a way in here somehow," she said, fruitlessly swiping at it with her paws.

"Give it here," Eddie said. He picked it up and banged it against the stump, which had no effect whatsoever. Loretta laughed.

"So much for that."

She tried once more to claw open the coconut's husk. Eddie looked around for his bayonet, wondering if it was possible to cut it open, when he heard approaching footsteps, and the sound of a woman's voice.

"Let me, sergeant." Eddie looked up to see Lieutenant Haldane and his lioness daemon standing nearby, watching them with undisguised amusement. Haldane had been assigned to Eddie's platoon just before they shipped out, and he didn't know him well, though many times today he had been glad that he had such a large and distinctive daemon - far easier to pick out from the crowd than their platoon leader's little red cardinal, or the tabby wildcat that accompanied their CO.

Eddie picked up the coconut and offered it to the lioness, who gently took it in her jaws. With one well-measured crunch, she split the coconut in two, holding it together until Eddie took it back again. He drank from one half and put the other down for Loretta, who set about it with great enthusiasm.

"Thank you, ma'am," Eddie said. "Would you like some?"

The lioness shook her head. "No, we've had plenty already."

"We just couldn't bear to see you struggling any longer," Haldane added.

"Well, we're very much obliged." Eddie nudged Loretta. "Say thank you."

"Thhngyew," Loretta said through a mouthful of coconut. Haldane and the lioness both laughed.

"How are you doing, sergeant?" Haldane asked.

"Pretty good, sir, considering. Anything I oughta know?"

"Nothing you haven't already been told. Just make sure the men are dug in well, and turn in as soon as possible. We're leaving first thing tomorrow."

"Aye, sir."

Haldane smiled warmly. "Sleep well."

"You too, sir."

The lioness nodded to them, and then they moved on, off to talk to the next group of men along the line. Eddie watched as they left, gradually becoming aware of something rhythmically smacking into the ground beside him.

"You wag that tail any harder, you'll do yourself an injury."

Loretta ignored him. "That Haldane's really something," she said. "And her human ain't bad, either."

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about."

"You can't hide anything from me, Ed. I'm you. You're me."

"Well then," Eddie said, unable to hold back a crooked smile, "you should know to keep your snout shut, shouldn't you?"

 

They moved out at dawn the next morning, heading for a place called Lunga Point. Their approach was anything but stealthy. The men cussed and bickered the whole way, swiping at mosquitos and struggling with the dense vegetation, with daemons of all shapes and sizes doing their best to keep up with the relentless pace. Almost everyone whose daemon was larger than pocket-size found it hard going, but the most unlucky was a private in Eddie's squad called Harrigan who had the misfortune to be accompanied by a pig.

"Sergeant Jones," he called forlornly, "it's happened again."

"Dammit, Harrigan," Eddie sighed, walking back to find Harrigan stood haplessly by as his daemon tried and failed to extricate herself from between two close-growing palm trees. He took hold of one, and gestured for Harrigan to grab the other, while Loretta moved up behind the pig. Normally, he would ask permission before allowing Loretta to come into contact with someone else's daemon, but normal etiquette didn't apply here. Especially not considering he'd already had to free Harrigan's daemon twice this morning.

"Okay, Harrigan, when I say pull, pull," Eddie said. "Now pull!" They bent back the thin, springy trunks of the young palm trees as much as they were able, while Loretta put her shoulder to the pig's rump and pushed forward. There was a moment's resistance, and then the pig stumbled forward, Loretta somersaulting over her and both of them landing in a heap. The two daemons hastily separated, not wishing to remain in contact any longer than necessary, and returned to their respective partners' sides. 

Harrigan crouched down to give his daemon a reassuring hug.

"I'm real sorry, sarge," he said, "Delilah don't have much sense of direction." He gave her a final pat on the back and stood up again. "Poor ol' girl. I wanted to be a pilot, y'know, but they said she wouldn't fit in the cockpit."

"Yeah, they said that about Eddie, too," Loretta said cheerfully. Eddie made to kick her in the side, and she skipped away, laughing.

Eddie shook his head. "Quit fooling around. We need to catch up with the rest."

With a final warning to Harrigan to not let it happen again, they moved on up along the line. 

At the head of the group they found Lieutenant Haldane and his lioness struggling with a particularly impenetrable patch of shrubbery, Haldane hacking away with his KA-BAR while the lioness ripped chunks of it off with her paws.

"Give me a hand here, sergeant," Haldane panted. 

"Yes sir," Loretta said, and began digging. The dense, damp soil wasn't easy to shift, but it only took her a couple of minutes to free the bush's roots enough for Eddie and Haldane to pull it clear and roll it out of the way.

"Good thinking," Haldane said, and looked at his daemon. "Now, why didn't you think of that?"

"Because I'm not a dog," she said. "No offence, sergeant."

"None taken, ma'am!" Loretta said, shaking the dirt off her paws. She gestured for Haldane to go first.

"Please, call me Diana," the lioness said, following Haldane through the gap.

"Loretta," Loretta replied.

"That's a pretty name," Haldane said, as Eddie came through.

"Thank you, sir," Eddie said - he still had to observe the formalities of rank, even if their daemons had decided to be on first-name terms. "And your Diana's a very handsome beast, if you don't mind my saying."

"I don't," Diana said.

"Flirt." Haldane nudged her with his foot. She playfully headbutted his shin in return.

The going here was a little easier, and they walked side by side, Loretta and Diana making a path through the undergrowth while Eddie and Haldane looked out for any signs of danger ahead.

"Must come in handy, having a daemon that size," Eddie said, watching admiringly as Diana shouldered aside a fallen branch.

Haldane looked thoughtful. "It's a mixed blessing. She's good in the field, but a liability in close confines. Trying to share a hammock with her is a nightmare."

Eddie chuckled. "Everyone's got their advantages and disadvantages. You remember when you got stuck on the assault course, Loretta?" She pretended not to have heard him. Eddie continued anyway. "Everything was going alright, until we came to a bit where you had to shin up a rope. We tried all kinds of ways to try and get up there together, and nothing worked - in the end she had to hang on to my shoulders while I did all the climbing. Damn near strangled me, but at least we made it."

Haldane smiled. "How did the landing go? Diana's too big for me to lift - we had to climb down the rigging side by side. Not that I minded, but she wasn't happy."

"Well, I'd like to see how you'd hold a rope if you had no thumbs," Diana said.

"That was exactly what I said!" Loretta said.

Eddie ignored their comments and said to Haldane, "I went down with her strapped to my back; guess I'm lucky having a daemon light enough to carry, if I have to."

"Lucky for you, maybe. I thought I looked a complete spectacle," Loretta said.

Diana nodded sympathetically. "They have no idea how to treat a lady."

"Oh, here we go," Haldane said.

Eddie was starting to enjoy this. He was hungry and tired, but Haldane was good company, and for all its dangers, the island really was beautiful. The trees were the greenest green he'd ever seen, adorned with bright flowers and jewelled beetles. He saw a parrot fly overhead, and marvelled at its vivid blue plumage. He kept watching as it swooped from branch to branch, sometimes coming daringly low before disappearing into the forest canopy, reappearing again a few yards on.

It could be the case, Eddie supposed, that were lots of those blue parrots up there, but suddenly he felt rather uneasy.

"Don't laugh," he said, "but I think that parrot's following us."

To his relief, Haldane took his remark seriously. He exchanged a meaningful look with Diana - no words were spoken, and they did not stop or slow their pace, but Eddie saw an immediate change in Diana's gait as she readied herself to pounce as soon as the opportunity arose. The next time the parrot came down low, she leapt, blue feathers flying everywhere as she caught the parrot in her paws and brought it to ground.

"Good," Haldane nodded. "Come back towards me." He signalled to the rest of the company to stop where they were.

Diana carefully took the parrot in her jaws and walked back to him.

"Keep on going," Haldane said as she passed him by. Eddie heard a rustling in the bushes nearby, and quickly readied his rifle. Capture the daemon and you capture the man, that's what they said in training. You could, with discipline and patience, extend the distance you were able to put between yourself and your daemon, but there was always a limit to what a soul could bear. 

Diana kept on going, so far that Haldane himself had to start following, and Eddie began to wonder if maybe it really was just a parrot. It began to squawk and thrash about, and its cries became louder and more agitated as Diana kept on walking, but no sound or motion came from the undergrowth.

"Keep going," Haldane said again, now several yards back from where they'd started. "Jones, be ready."

Eddie thought he saw something move ahead of him, and tightened his finger on the trigger of his rifle. His head was pounding. Any minute now, they'd see him. Any minute now -

The parrot screamed.

"It's gone," he heard Diana say.

Eddie glanced back over his shoulder. Diana's mouth was empty. Haldane had gone rather pale.

"What's going on?" one of his men asked.

"False alarm," Eddie said. "Let's go."

A little further ahead, they found the man they had been expecting, lying slumped face-down against a tree. His body was unmarked but for his bloody and torn fingernails, and there were deep gouges in the bark. Eddie shuddered. He had heard wild stories of how the Japs would do just about anything rather than surrender, but the thought of willingly letting someone break the link between you and your daemon -

He moved past swiftly, and drew close to Loretta, glad to feel the warmth of her fur beneath his palm.

 

After that encounter, Eddie braced himself for more and worse, but his fears were unfounded. The airfield at Lunga Point, when they found it, was completely deserted, with unopened crates of food and ammunition there for the taking. Other companies reported having encountered small pockets of resistance, but it was clear that whatever force had been left to defend this area was purely token. The whole thing had been almost too easy.

"Strangest damn war I ever fought," Gunny Haney said, as he and Eddie took a cigarette break in between shifting crates. Barbara, his stocky little mountain goat daemon, nodded vigorously.

"It's like they don't wanna fight or somethin'," she said.

Eddie shrugged. "I don't know. Could be they're waiting for us to get tired out from looking."

"You're such a pessimist," Loretta said.

"Well, they gotta fight us some time," Barbara said, and butted a nearby oildrum.

"Easy, doll," Haney said, catching hold of one of her horns. "Y'could be right, Jones, but I reckon they're just yellow." He chuckled. "Get it? Yellow? 'Cause they're -"

Eddie sighed. "Yeah, I got it." He wasn't in a joking mood. He didn't know a damn thing about the Japs, but he was sure that whatever they were doing, it wasn't out of cowardice. They were out there, not that far away. Maybe they were creeping up on them at this very moment. Maybe they were massing their forces further back, waiting for the Americans to walk into their trap. He wasn't going to lie to himself, the parrot incident had shaken him up pretty bad. He wouldn't rest easy that night.

 

As it happened, nobody got very much in the way of rest. Not long after sundown, the artillery started firing, and it didn't let up all night. Eddie slept in fits and starts, exhaustion taking him down for an hour or so before one of the louder and closer explosions shook him awake again. He felt like hell the next morning, and all the more so when he learned the reason for all that sound and fury.

The Japs had sunk their supply ships, and with them all their food, medicine, and hope of a quick departure. All they had now to sustain them was what they had brought, and what was left at the airfield - no more than two weeks' worth, and that on short rations. Add in the rampant dysentery that inevitably accompanied tropical campaigns, and it was no surprise that within a few days the men seemed noticeably thinner and thoroughly miserable.

At least he had music. His old guitar was packed away in storage with his service uniform and the letters his family had sent him, but on the second evening at Lunga Point, one of the guys from his company brought him a guitar he'd found left under a bunk in the barrack-room huts. It felt a little funny to think there was some Japanese counterpart of him out there in the jungle missing his guitar, but every night after that, he'd take some time to play for anyone who wanted to listen.

It was one such night, about two weeks in, that he found himself on his own. He closed his eyes and imagined himself back home, sitting out on a warm summer evening with fireflies buzzing around the porch light, just him picking away while Loretta sang accompaniment. They sang _Shenandoah_ and _Swing Low Sweet Chariot_ , and Eddie had just played the first few chords of _Streets of Laredo_ when Diana approached and laid by his feet, sweet as a kitten. He stopped, looking up at Haldane.

"Hey, don't stop on my account," Haldane said. "I came to listen."

Eddie figured that was an order. He changed his mind about _Streets of Laredo_ and began with something upbeat, only realising when Loretta started to sing that _San Antonio Rose_ was a great deal more lovelorn than he remembered it. He just hoped Haldane wouldn't think anything of it, and concentrated a little harder than usual on making sure his fingers hit all their marks.

When he finished, Haldane applauded. Loretta did a ridiculous little curtsey in response, while Eddie put aside his guitar and stretched the cramp out of his arms.

"Any news?" he asked.

Haldane sighed and pushed his hand back through his hair. "Someone from B Company took a prisoner who claimed that the Japanese were on their last legs and willing to surrender, so intelligence sent a patrol out to see if that was true. They haven't come back yet."

"And five bucks says it'll be our job to go find them," Diana said.

"I won't take that bet," Haldane said. "You don't carry money, for a start."

"It's a figure of speech, Andy."

_Andy_ , Eddie thought, noting it for future reference. Haldane yawned and stretched, joints clicking, and then laid down, resting his head against Diana's side.

"Everything alright, sir?"

"Fine," Haldane said, and yawned again. "Just enjoying the down time while it lasts. You keep on playing; it's soothing."

Eddie nodded. "Aye, sir." He improvised something light and gentle, idly picking while keeping watch, and for a while, even with his stomach grumbling and mosquitos biting at his shins, even knowing the patrol were most likely dead or captured and there'd be more and worse to come, he felt at peace.

 

Of course, the calm couldn't last for long. Of the twenty-five men who had gone downriver, only three returned. The Japanese had no intention of surrender, instead having fallen back and regrouped in several villages on the other side of the Matanikau river.

Just as Diana had predicted, K Company had the bad luck to be one of three selected to find those villages and clear them out before they caused any more trouble. Once again, Eddie found himself hiking through the jungle at dawn, recklessly chain-smoking through his carefully-hoarded supply of cigarettes to take the edge off his hunger and his nerves.

It was a long walk until they came to the banks of the Matanikau and the sandbar that would serve as their crossing point. The path was narrow and exposed, but it was the only way. Another company were fording the river at the only point low enough to let them do so, and a third coming in on boats; for the plan to work King had to cross here, and in good time to join up with the others. Perhaps it would be easy. Perhaps they'd be sitting ducks. They wouldn't know until they tried.

Their CO was the first to leave the cover of the forest and head down the bank. He had only taken a few steps forward when a shot rang out from the other side and he staggered backwards, clutching at his wounded shoulder.

"Stay back!" their platoon leader yelled, opening fire on the opposite bank while two men scurried out to drag their CO back to the comparative safety of the undergrowth. His wildcat daemon fussed around him, fretfully licking the blood from his hand and whispering words of reassurance while a corpsman did his best to clean and dress the wound.

They exchanged fire across the river for several minutes, but they couldn't stay where they were for long. F Company would be crossing any time now, and they needed K to be there to support them. They had to get moving.

Eddie's platoon leader gave him the nod to advance, and then they were up and running, mortars zooming above their heads as they raced down the bank side and across the sandbar. Eddie made it across easily, staying back to make sure the rest of his squad got across. He counted them off as they moved from the sandbar to huddle behind a rocky outcrop, looking back to see Harrigan coming along in last, Delilah huffing and puffing as she scrambled across the sand.

He flashed Eddie a triumphant smile as he leapt clear to solid ground. Eddie grabbed him by the wrist, pulling him back behind the rocks with the others, when Delilah suddenly let out an earsplitting shriek. Both Eddie and Harrigan stared as she stopped short, shot, and wobbled unsteadily on her trotters, before vanishing without sound or trace.

At that same instant, Harrigan went limp and slumped against Eddie's side. Eddie quickly dragged him away from the rest of the group and rolled the body underneath a bush. Hopefully he would still be there when they were able to return to collect their dead. There was nothing more that could be done now.

"Come on, second squad, move it!" their platoon leader called. Eddie peered over the lip of the rocks, judging his moment, and then gestured to his squad to run. He led the way, tossing off a grenade or two to try and clear their path, men and their daemons chasing in a ragged line behind him. They dashed from cover to cover, Eddie at the front, Loretta herding them from the rear. Often she got too far from him for comfort, but he fought down the pain and pushed onwards, trusting she'd get back to him.

And then suddenly something hit him like a punch to the solar plexus, knocking him backwards. It felt like someone had put meathooks in his chest, dragging him back to the bank, to where Loretta was in the water, frantically paddling against the current.

"What happened?" Eddie called.

"Somebody kicked me in!" she said. Eddie crouched down, leaning as far out as he could, but she was too far away to grasp. There was nothing forward.

He barked an order to his squad to cover him, then threw down his rifle and waded in. The strength of the current and the weight of his equipment made it a struggle just to stay upright, but he had no option, the pain rising in intensity as Loretta drifted further away.

"Jones, what's going on?" he heard Haldane shout.

"It's Loretta, sir, we got separated." The water was up to Eddie's chest now, and the pain was near unbearable; he stretched out his arms, but could only just touch her paws with his fingertips, unable to get a proper hold.

He heard a loud splash, and suddenly Diana was swimming up to him.

"Permission?" she said.

"Granted."

Diana swam forwards and grabbed hold of Loretta, biting the scruff of her neck and hauling her up like a mother cat carrying a kitten. She swam forward enough for Eddie to grip Loretta by the forelegs, and Haldane caught hold of him as they scrambled up the riverbank, collapsing together on the shore.

"Thank you, sir, ma'am," Eddie panted, getting to his feet.

"Any time," Diana said.

Without thinking, Eddie did something that would have been inconceivable in any other circumstance - he reached out and petted Diana, running his hand over her head and down the back of her neck. Haldane let out a quiet gasp, and shivered all over. Their eyes met.

There was a moment's pause, and then Haldane nodded, just slightly, and leaned down to scratch Loretta behind the ears. Eddie felt himself break out in goosebumps, accompanied with just the faintest twinge of arousal at how good it felt being scratched just there.

A mortar exploded nearby, and whatever feeling it was that had just passed between them was gone. They exchanged an entirely different sort of look, and then they were up and running again, rejoining the rest of the company in the advance.

 

By afternoon they had secured the village, and they remained there for the night. Eddie was so tired that he didn't even bother looking for a bed, instead lying down on the first reasonably clean-looking bale of hay that he came to.

Drifting in the hazy state just before real sleep, he felt Loretta stir.

"Don' go far now," he mumbled. He didn't hear the rest, or see what Loretta had seen that had sparked her interest: a lioness sitting nearby. Loretta went to greet her.

"Sorry about Eddie, ma'am, he's dead beat," Loretta said.

Diana laughed. "So's my Andy," she said, nodding towards a doorway where Loretta could just about see Haldane hunched over a desk, valiantly trying to stay awake long enough to finish his report.

"Anyway, I came to check on you," Diana said. "How are you?"

"Oh, just dandy, now I'm dried out," Loretta said. "You, ma'am?"

"Rattled, but all here." Diana's eyes crinkled in a way that seemed rather more human than leonine. "Won't deny it, though, you gave us a hell of a scare out there."

Loretta laughed. "Sorry, ma'am. I'll do my best not to get kicked in the butt by Japs again."

"You better, sergeant!" Diana peered around Loretta's shoulder, looking fondly at Eddie. "They're so cute when they're asleep." She gave Loretta a sidelong look. "Has he realised yet?"

Loretta considered it. "Not completely, but he's getting there. Always takes 'em twice as long as we do to figure things out."

Diana gave Loretta a look that could only be described as coquettish. "Well, I look forward to the day."

Loretta wagged her tail. "Here's hoping we make it that far."

Diana leaned in and nudged her nose against Loretta's, before turning and pacing away. Loretta stood and watched the elegant movement of the lioness's haunches as she walked, until she headed indoors and out of sight.

Loretta went to rejoin Eddie, noticing the subtle, crooked smile that had appeared on his face.

"What you so happy about?" she teased as she lay down beside him.

Eddie shrugged with one shoulder. "You tell me."

Loretta moved in closer, laying an arm over his chest and tucking her head beneath his chin. "Didn't I tell you before? We're gonna be just fine."

**Author's Note:**

> For those who are curious -
> 
> Loretta is, specifically, a [Welsh Hillman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Hillman), an old and now extinct breed of sheepdog; even in Eddie's day they were rare, and certainly wouldn't be a usual sight in the Appalachians, but as per the fic, my justification is that an awful lot of the Jones family (particularly the firstborn children) have had daemons shaped like that. I have no idea why she's called Loretta other than the name immediately sprang to mind and seemed to fit. Diana, meanwhile, is named after the Roman goddess of hunting - and also after Wonder Woman.


End file.
